S3E3: Professor Matt Estes | The Japanese-American Internment, Part I

Mark Twain once quipped that history doesn't "repeat...but if often rhymes."

This week on The Last Question I talk with history professor Matt Estes about a period in U.S. history that I think is often overlooked but could be remarkably instructive in our present day.

Professor Estes teaches history at Palomar College near San Diego and is a historian whose own history is interwoven with the history he studies. He's a long-time friend and once was my high school world history teacher; today he remains a go-to resource for me in my own work and today as someone well-qualified to speak to the experience of Japanese-American families imprisoned by their own country after the Japanese Empire's attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Matt's professional bio is available here: https://pages.palomar.edu/mestes/

For books mentioned in this week's episode, here's George Takei's graphic memoir about his own experience during the Internment: https://amzn.to/4sARXtE

And Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston: https://amzn.to/4vtz66N

A great place to start learning more about the Japanese-American Internment and experience is densho.org. https://www.densho.org